After a video revealed a Zara employee in Paris denying entry to a woman wearing a hijab, the clothing store issued an apology.
The guard at the store told the woman that anyone wearing something covering their head was not allowed in the store.
He added, “If things change, they’ll change, but I don’t make the rules.”
The video was posted on Saturday, the day after the Paris massacres, then pulled down over the weekend, but angry reactions had already been aroused. Protests mounted on social media, prompting Zara to issue an apology, in which the company stated:
Our country head in France has personally contacted this customer to apologize for the incident and to express our utter disagreement with such actions, which are completely opposite to the principles of our company. Both the security staff and the store manager involved with this specific incident have been sanctioned. Zara is a diverse and multicultural company that has employees and customers of many different nationalities, orientations, cultures, languages and beliefs. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.
In 2014, Zara briefly attempted to sell a shirt that looked eerily similar to the clothing Jews wore in the German death camps; the company pulled the item off the Internet the same day it was posted. That same month, the company was accused of insensitivity for selling a shirt emblazoned, “White is the new black.”